My synoptic survey of Mahler
recordings first appeared in 1999 which means
that in 2006 it is now high time for revision
and updating. Not that my opinions as to what
makes great Mahler recordings have changed in
any way. Rather that the landscape of what is
out there in terms of recordings on the market
has. In the intervening years there have been
many brand new Mahler releases to consider for
inclusion, many of which I have reviewed individually
on new release. There have also been reissues
of older recordings aplenty. Which has meant
that CD numbers and liveries have changed for
some of my prime recommendations and also thought
needed to be given for inclusion of versions
that had to be missed first time round. There
have also been the welcome official issuing
of many recordings that were hitherto only available
on "pirate" labels. It is a real and abiding
pleasure to now report that most of the recordings
which were at the very core of my original recommendations
in this survey that were in hard to find and
poor sounding issues are now easily available,
sounding better than many people dared hope.
You will see that this is marked by details
of the new release and my own comments regarding
the improved sound. Finally even more issues
from radio archives have appeared but this time
the trend towards master tape official releases
now means that the days of "special pleading"
for a concert or broadcast recording in terms
of sound and availability is largely over.

All of these aspects have gone
into the revision of my Mahler survey which
you now have before you. However, just because
there have been many new recordings and newly
reissued recordings since this survey first
appeared doesnít mean to say that there are
the same number of recordings to be added to
it. Most of my original recommendations still
stand and are only reinforced by the passage
of time. What you will find new here are mostly
additions to the core "must haves".

This survey was never intended
to be exhaustive or definitive and this has
not changed. It was always intended to be a
personal selection of Mahler recordings that
I considered to be the crème de la
crème. Mahler has been a very lucky
composer on record and so the choice for inclusions
has always been very hard to make. I have frequently
rejected for inclusion recordings which, on
their own, have nothing wrong with them in terms
of performance and sound. Rather I have been
concerned with selecting, sometimes ruthlessly,
what I consider to be recordings of exceptional
quality and importance. This latter point is
often at the back of my inclusion of recordings
that seem to have something important to tell
us in the history of performance, especially
when you the collector might be thinking in
terms of building a profile of recordings of
one work. No conductor has "the last word" on
any Mahler symphony and so it has always seemed
to me that the ideal is to own a number of recordings
of each work. That is not to say that I have
neglected to consider those who regard one recording
of each work as enough, most especially those
new to Mahler or even to classical music. I
hope all kinds of collectors, new and seasoned,
can be catered for here. Mention of "seasoned"
Mahler collectors prompts me to place here what
I frequently have written to those kind enough
to contact me. Just because your own special
favourite recording is not mentioned by me,
or is mentioned only in passing, doesnít mean
to say that I have never heard it. It could
mean that I have heard it, even rated it quite
highly, but have decided, in the end, that it
did not meet my crème de la crème
criteria or fall into any of the special historical
category that I have already mentioned. I can
only repeat that the opinions expressed in the
foregoing are those of this author, foibles
and all. I have this time tried to include min
"round up" some recordings which nearly "made
the cut". I hope this is helpful and goes some
way to assuaging my more enthusiastic critics.

As always I take the quality
of the interpretation and the performance as
my first priorities over the quality of the
recorded sound. In an ideal world a great performance
and interpretation would always be accompanied
by great sound, but this is not an ideal world.
I will never discard a great performance just
because the sound needs some apology. Where
it is the case that a great performance needs
"special pleading" in terms of the recorded
sound you will see that special pleading and
also suggestions as to the recording, or recordings,
I would point as alternatives for those to whom
sound is of greater importance. The same applies
to the question of inaccuracies in playing.
Those who know my writing on Mahler from this
survey and my reviews know that I value "live"
recordings greatly. Believing that the extra
frisson that "the concert hall as theatre"
brings can on occasions more than outweigh any
fluffs or mistakes in the playing. However,
since I know that this matter is a consideration
for many people I hope that also is taken into
account in alternatives given. Great playing
does not necessarily have to mean playing that
is always accurate throughout. Of that I remain
convinced.

As before, where it is the
case that there is more than one recording of
a work available from a particular conductor
whose interpretation I admire then I make a
decision on which of their recordings to include.
There are, after all, many examples of conductors
having two or even three "goes" at Mahler symphonies.
It is interesting, however, just how often the
first thoughts seem to be the best ones. One
matter on which I have relaxed a rule in this
revision is the question of recordings that
are not, at present, in the catalogue. What
is or is not "in the catalogue" is something
of a movable feast. Recordings come in and go
out of the catalogue with alarming frequency.
What is available in one country can frequently
be available in another, and one of the biggest
changes since this survey first appeared is
the ease with which collectors can now obtain
recordings internationally via the Internet.
In train with this is the explosion in the second-hand
market on various well-known auction sites.
So, even if one of my favourite recordings is
no longer available where you live, you might
well be able to find one somewhere else or,
failing that, track down a good second-hand
copy. This will account for incidences of "out
of catalogue" recordings now appearing with
some confidence that a prospective buyer will
be able to get it.

It is a sobering thought to
realise that I have now been listening to and
seriously studying Mahlerís music for nearly
forty years on record, on the radio and in the
concert hall of both the body and the mind .
It is this experience and this experience
only that I offer as justification for the
opinions and choices that follow. I hope you
find them helpful and stimulating. If you find
them neither, then I hope that disagreeing with
them has only deepened your appreciation of
Gustav Mahler.